There is a whole family of IR rangefinders, each with a unique (but somewhat limited) distance range. The GPD12's 4"-30" range seemed ideal for measuring distances within the firefighting maze in which Pokey competed.

Modern sonar systems are significantly smaller and also inexpensive, about $30 for something like the Devantech SRF04 Ranger (right). The device is about 2" x 3/4" and includes the driver circuitry on the back of the board.

This particular model uses a separate transducer and receiver. However, you can also get single transducer/receiver models. This device can measure distances from 3cm to 3m!

Of course in the 1990's, tiny cameras with any kind of image processing fell into the realm of impossible or unaffordable.

The CMUcam2+ (left) is able to do high contrast color tracking, all in a 2.25" square package. How times have changed!

There are a number of sources for this gear. I got a sonar ranger from Radio Shack when they were having a sale. I got my Sharp rangers from Acroname (the source of the pictures and info above; no advertising affiliation with the company, I just like 'em).

Saturday, October 3, 2009

I have a lot of irons in the fire and up to various stuff that I can squeeze in between the time when baby girl goes to sleep and when I do. Or occasionally during a lunch hour.

I'm in the midst of several electronics projects: IR repeater, oscilloscope calibrator, ESR test harness, ideas for a mini robot made of audio parts. You'll see posts on these in the ensuing weeks and months.

Meanwhile I've been fixing a vintage receiver with some help. I'm helping out someone in South Africa diagnose and repair an oscilloscope. And I've got a stack of non-functioning audio gear I want to work on, like an all-tube Fisher 400, a Yamaha CR-2020, and much more.

I've also got some prep work to do for hunting season, some work to do on the Jeep (both stories for my other blog). And my hobby fund needs to fatten up a bit...

So I need to slow the pace of posting here to give myself a break. Most likely you'll see articles every other week instead of weekly, at least for awhile.